Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Creepy album cover art #2


My parents first exposed me to Isao Tomita when I was eight years old and I've never forgiven them for it.

Please listen to Tomita's nine minute rendition of Ravel's Bolero at maximum volume.

Isao Tomita - Bolero

almost

in my rush to put up the song i wanted this morning, i accidentally uploaded the wrong thing! not a big deal though since everything we offer here is excellent. stay tuned for the correct offering later in the evening.

ivor cutler - boo boo bird.mp3"

Monday, February 27, 2006

fear of sticker shock

almost a week without an update already! where ARE you guys!? i hate to break the silence like this, but profanity is just too funny to pass up.



from what i remember of this recording, some kid recorded his dad trying to fix a bicycle. it sounds like he's trying his best not to swear; perhaps he'd been chided by mother to not soil son's ears. sometimes, though, it just doesn't work that way. you HAVE to swear as loud as possible for the tools to do their job. my dad seemed to be found of calling broken things "you fucking whore!" what this says about him, i'm not sure. i'd rather not think about it. instead, let's listen to "daddy's curses."

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

i sure do love the creaky voices

i don't know what it is. there's some implied authenticity somehow, as though this person has lived a long and hard life for sure. it's probably a good thing i heard her music before i saw karen dalton:



although she's a total fox, i don't see suffering there, but there's that unmistakable billy holiday thing that just gets me everytime. (btw thanks sarah r for turning me onto this lady a few years ago).

here are the two songs i've been listening to over and over again.

notable parts:

2:12 of "something's on your mind"... the way her voice breaks when she reaches for those high notes. ugh. swoooon.

0:25 of "katie cruel"... when the fiddle comes in sounding completely distant from the rest of the song. sounds like it was phoned in or is playing on a radio in the background.

i'll be in chicago for a few days. i'll try to post from there but i may be incapacitated.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

i am gross/no you're not (kids by mason)

i wracked my brain to find a good song with singing kids. tried to remember the name of the pre-teen hardcore band, tried to find my jr. and the soulettes cd (which i think sarah may have broken)... it took me days. now i present:

the stinky puffs.


not actually a stinky puff

born of the spawn of two of my favorite human beings (jad fair and lee ranaldo), the puffs put out an EP of about 4 songs. well, it's 9 songs, but 4 of them repeat twice as live versions (ft. krist and dave from nirvana, fresh from the death of mr. cobain). there's a song about that on the EP, but i'll only be sharing the first two tracks. it's really easy to find and i suggest you do.

stinfy puffs - buddies aren't butts.mp3
stinky puffs - menendezes killed their parents.mp3

Kids Who Sing (2, 3, 4, 5)


First off: Las Dilly Sisters from East LA's Rampart Records covering a Standells tune.

Las Dilly Sisters - Sometimes Goodguys Don't Wear White

Second: Alfred A. Alfa (read: Alfalfa) really belting out Hank Williams' "Your Cheatin' Heart"

Alfred A Alfa - Your Cheatin Heart

Third: The final cut on Archie Shepp's 1972 Attica Blues. The tune is sung by its composers daughter.

Archie Shepp - Quiet Dawn

And: Jackson-Family-like Family Plann teaches us about the Breakdown.

Family Plann - Come On Lets Do the Breakdown

Monday, February 20, 2006

Ghost poster / Mason's found sound.

For whatever reason Mason decided to give me the honor of posting this audio train wreck.

More info from Mason's lj:
here's a tape i've been talking about for a while...at the beginning of the file, you're hear samples of the rest of the tape. it's mostly a group of longtime friends shooting the shit while drunk. but it gets scary a few minutes in. that's when the fight starts. it's vicious, possibly drunken and almost certainly real. these people are dying and hate each other. they didn't want this tape to survive or possibly died before they could destroy it completely. i feel like i should probably get rid of it and let this sort of bitterness disappear, but instead i've put it on the internet for you.


vetters

you'd think we were boingboing or something

posting from work. this means i'm relying on a stack of random CD-Rs to share things with you. also, anything from work is going to be in the form of a rapidshare link since i can't actually get into my webspace from here.



i've never been on disney's haunted mansion ride, but there are apparently obsessives devoted to it. then again, there are obsessives devoted to everything these days. if you have no idea what i'm talking about, take a look at doombuggies.com to see an overwhelming history. personally, i like to listen to this ride soundtrack while riding the bus.


http://rapidshare.de/files/13730983/Disney_s_Haunted_Mansion_-
_Disneyland__Complete_Ride_.mp3.html

Saturday, February 18, 2006

so late!

i promised suicide and i will deliver. renee, you can post the creepy tape here if you want... i don't want to do it. instead, i would rather offer up a different piece of conforntational audio.

here we find suicide opening for elvis constello sometime after their first record. the audience, as you will hear, is really not happy with them. they turn sometime after the 2nd song when they realize that it's pretty much the same thing over and over.... which is kind of the point, but when you're there to hear "radio radio", your average belgian isn't going to be satisfied with "cherie cherie". anyway, it's saturday and i should be out having fun but i feel guilty for not delivering the goods on time.

ps ben i haven't forgotten the funk challenge. it's coming.

suicide - 23 minutes over belgium.mp3

Here Mason

Thursday, February 16, 2006

swedish mystery team


two songs that i know nothing about. i can't find anything about them in english. it's possible there's info on them in some other language but i'm not going to look that hard. all i know is that there are some compilations going under the name "toytown" (which may or may not be related to the toytown label) with these two songs on them. they're almost certainly swedish (listen to those choruses!) and probably didn't have a hit record. i'm stumped, kids. i really don't know anything else but... i like them.

these are wussy songs and i don't care. tomorrow i think i'm going to post an entire suicide concert.

kathy and gulliver - sixteen dandelions.mp3
demsey and dover - little car of mine.mp3

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

the love moodswing post number two (by mason)

i delivered a lot of flowers to office ladies today. it made me feel like this:

diamanda galas - my world is empty.mp3


i love that picture almost as much as the lung leg one on the cover of evol

then i came home and things weren't really all that bad anymore. the rest of the day was like this:

cookie monster and the crumbs unlimited orchestra - me going to munch you, munch you, munch you.mp3


btw, it's total BULLSHIT that he's crazy about stupid ass vegetables now. it looks like they've got hoots the owl hooked on em too. :/

ben, tomorrow i'm going to answer you challenge of "funkiest thing heard all week."

i love you guys! <3

Chipmunks version coming soon.

Like I need this stinkin' "holiday" to tell you how I really feel!


<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

Monday, February 13, 2006

because i love you, this will be valentine's post #1 (by mason)


lonely? no one to cuddle up with this 14th of february? perhaps you've considered a mail-order bride? offing yourself? some mix of both...

well, don't give up! tomorrow's going to be an awesome day where people pretend to be nice to you and give you candy. keep that chin up! you're going to have the chorus to this song in your brain to make you smile. and if all else fails, let cassetteboy give you advice on choosing your company wisely.

From Bollywood (1)

This theme to the sprawling Bollywood epic Dharmatma (1975) is probably the funkiest thing you'll hear all week.
The plot: Gangster philanthropist Seth has his ill-gained luxury challenged by the only person who could - his son. The title of the film translates to Godfather, and it does feature Hindi mafia types with wide collared shirts.
The Bollywood remake trend is far less verse by verse than the American trend. See for example this recent remake of Fight Club


Theme from Dharmatma

Orson Welles teaches us all about prepositional phrases and frozen peas.

This is what happens when you attempt to direct one of the most famous directors on the planet.

Even if Welles was a bit hard up for cash and doing a spot for a frozen peas commercial was the only work he could get, the former radio star of The Shadow still had his pride!

And yes he does say, "show me how you can say in July and I'll go down on you."


Orson Welles -- Frozen Peas

Sunday, February 12, 2006

quick sunday morality lesson



always trust trikont. they have never made a bad or useless compliation. they're one of the few labels that make me feel guilty about downloading their wares. hopefully i can make things better by encouraging you to buy this compliation of 78-rpm era dirty music.

art fowler & his ukulele - no wonder she's a blushing bride.mp3
lucille bogan - shave em dry.mp3

Saturday, February 11, 2006

A bratty drama queen from Brooklyn.


Most of us have seen the Really Rosie TV Special -- Maurice Sendak's animation with Carole King providing the soundtrack and almost all of the chartacter's voices, including that of the title star, Rosie. It originally aired in 1975, but I first saw it the mid-80s and have caught it in later years during Halloween holiday tv programming, usually sandwiched between The Worst Witch and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. It's been awhile since I've seen it but at least once a year the lyrics "happy once, happy twice, happy chicken soup with rice" seem to pop into my head and I'll feel the need to reminisce and bust out the soundtrack [while heating up some Campbell's]. I think this is King's best work. Every track is excellent but I'll post my two favorites.

Pierre
Chicken Soup with Rice

The soundtrack was reissued in 1999 and if you do a little digging you can find some VHS copies of the show. Oh, and if you happen to live in Kansas you can catch the University of Kansas' theater production of it at the end of this month!

Friday, February 10, 2006

...but my phonograph hasn't worked in over a year

we have a "logo" now. thanks renee! now post songs!



starting next week we'll be posting a whole mix or album so that we won't have to work on the weekends... at least that's the idea i had today. of course, like most of my great ideas, i'm not going to do anything about it for another week. instead, here's a simple song by the kingsmen. post-louie louie (the song so awesome that dave marsh had to go and write a book about it). it's weird how that song managed to break so big because the kingsmen seem to have been pretty crappy. this song's fun though. bon weekend.

the kingsmen - that's cool, that's trash

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Kids who sing 1 (from Ben)

Thanks to the efforts of the amazing Numero Group
our knowledge of apocryphal record companies and recording artists is mushrooming in dark damp crawlspaces. 

1969
Southside, Chicago
Arrow Brown runs the Brown Productions (also known as Bandit) record concern out of his 2-storey home. It's a cultish Jackson family.  Arrow is the Sultan, the Czar, the President.  He's heavy handed, a bit violent.  And so many girls. "Daughters" of Arrow Brown. 
But the man had a son.  And the son got in on his dear dad's act. Iceberg Slim could have written this.

Altyrone Deno Brown records two singles (that we know of) at the age of seven.  Press calls him Chicago's Lil' Michael Jackson. 
He isn't.
This don't look good.
And then Brown's top singer got thrown off a building.
Would Brown wish his son to be Michael Jackson now?

If You Love Me
Sweet Pea

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

"first" post and already i've mucked it up!

so i already wrote this post but somehow messed up on the actual posting part and then it disappeared. i hope my compatriots have an easier time with it. renee, ben and etc, the ball is now in your court.



a bombastic break-up song. a goffin/king composition written and released around the time of their divorce. they're no strangers to melodrama (see most of the shangri-las material), but there's something almost perverse about turning a mutual break-up into the A-side of a 45.

maybe that's not even the case here. i can't find any comment from either of them on this song... nor have i looked because i'd rather just believe my own story which is sure to be more interesting. also interesting is the chord structure and percussion that you could get away with calling "oriental" at the time of release (1967).

carole king would later go on to marry one of the fugs drive me fucking nuts with her whiney chick songwriter schtick. i don't know what gerry goffin did.

carole king - a road to nowhere.mp3